“ . . . Jimmy, Susy’s right. You can’t always have the TV. You can go upstairs and watch that TV if you want. Or go Facebook on your computer; you love that anyway.”
“Don't wanta facebook. And the other TV's too small.”
“I’m sorry. It’s Susy’s turn.”
Jimmy ran to the table a couple of feet away. He picked up a glass and threw it to the floor. The glass shattered. Susy shrieked and grabbed her father around the waist.
“I’m tellin’ mom,” Jimmy screamed. “I hate you, you bastard.”
“You clean that glass up, Young Man,” Henry countered.
“Fuck you.”
Henry’s eyes lit up at that comment. He wanted to knock the hell out of the boy, but he knew that wouldn’t be wise.
A moment later, the front door was heard opening. Suddenly, Jimmy’s face beamed up. He put on a grin.
“Mom. That’s mom.” He pointed a staunch finger at Henry. “I’ll show you.”
He watched Henry with extreme hatred in his eyes. Henry tensed up just a little. Seeing her father tense up, worried Susy, though she knew she should have been used to it.
A few moments later, Ava appeared in the hallway. She carried a couple of bags of groceries as she came down the hall.
“Mommy, Mommy,” Jimmy said excitedly.
“Hi, Sweetheart.”
Jimmy ran to Ava as she entered the kitchen, knocking his mother back against the wall. She nearly dropped the groceries. Jimmy clutched her and the bags.
“Be careful, Jimmy. What’s wrong with you?”
“He ain’t treating me right, Mommy. He’s doin’ me wrong again.”
“Who is?”
“Henry. It’s my day to watch TV, and he’s gonna let that little brat watch what she wants. He hates me, Mommy.”
Jimmy put on the most innocent, heart-wrenching expression. It could have melted the heart of the devil. That expression was all Ava needed. Still clasping her bags, she nudged Jimmy aside. Jimmy was more than glad to let go of her. Ava walked to the kitchen table and set down the bags.
“What the hell’s going on here?” she snapped at Henry.
Susy still had her arms wrapped around her daddy’s waist. Henry stood there. He shook somewhat.
“What are you doing to my boy, Henry? And did you break another one of my glasses?” She looked at the glass on the floor.
“No, Honey. Jimmy broke it. He’s upset. It’s . . . It’s Susy’s day to watch TV.”
“Says who? That brat?” She pointed to Susy.
“It is my turn,” Susy argued.
“You shut up. If my boy says it’s his day, then it’s his day. Don’t you dare show favoritism to your child over mine, Henry.”
“Don’t let her do it, Daddy,” said Susy, looking up pleadingly at her daddy. “You know it’s not Jimmy’s day.”
“Stop lying, Stupid Brat,” Jimmy yelled.
“Don’t call her that,” Henry calmly said.
“Don’t yell at my boy,” Ava shouted at Henry. “I won’t stand for this. My child’s every bit as good as yours.”
“I didn’t say he wasn’t, Dear. It’s just that it’s Susy’s . . . I mean, I thought it was her day.”
“My boy does not lie. He’s going to watch what he wants.”
“No, Daddy, no,” Susy begged. “Not this time. Don’t let her do it this time.”
Henry looked down at his daughter. He then looked to his wife. He turned red with embarrassment. However, the fear grew in his eyes, as Ava’s stare became more stern by the second. Jimmy couldn’t help but smile, and it made Susy steam. She could tell by the look on his face, that he knew he had another victory. He had told her more than once that her daddy was a piece of cake. She was sick and tired of him always winning.
“She always gets what she wants,” said Susy to Ava. “Even when she’s wrong.”
“You better shut up, Susy,” screeched Ava. “Before I spank you.”
“Honey, well . . .” Henry said to his daughter. “Perhaps I was wrong. Maybe it is Jimmy’s day.”
“Daddy? Why you keep doing this? It’s not fair.”
“We all make mistakes. You were just mistaken, Sweetheart. You’ll have next Saturday. I promise.”
Tears welled up in Susy’s eyes. “You don’t love me. All you love is her.”
“No, that’s not true. I . . .”
Before he could finish talking, Susy ran from the room, breaking down and crying. She ran into the den, threw herself on the couch, and fell into a sea of tears.
“Spoiled brat!” she heard Jimmy yell.
Susy would hear the whole scenario. She knew it was time for her father to get put in his place.
“Jimmy, go in the den and watch TV,” said Ava. “I want to talk to your daddy.”
“He ain’t my daddy. My daddy’s in Heaven.”
“Just go.”
Susy watched miserably, still crying, as Jimmy traipsed back into the family room. He dropped back down into the recliner, and he took his bowl of popcorn from the table beside his chair. Jimmy glanced at her briefly, and then returned his attention to the television. He looked quite smug. Meanwhile, Ava’s yelling was well heard from the kitchen.
“Now you just listen here, Henry Edwards, let’s get one thing straight. I’m not having you mistreat my sweet child.”
“But . . . Honey, I let him have the TV.”
“I don’t care. If I hadn’t come home, it would have been a different story.”
Ava went into a vicious verbal assault on Henry. All the while, the only response that Henry could give was: “Yes, Dear.”
Jimmy laughed. He threw some popcorn into his mouth.
“What a sucker,” he said, to no one in particular.
Susy could have ripped his guts out.
Chapter Four
Tori paced back and forth angrily in her den. She was dressed in jeans and a blouse. Occasionally, she would glance at Simone, who sat with her legs crossed on the couch. Simone’s face showed worry, which was well justified. Tori was quite angry. Tori could be dangerous when she got angry.
“You’re making me dizzy,” Simone said.
“I’m making you dizzy? I know somebody I’d really like to make dizzy – by knocking the stuffing out of her.”
Simone sighed worriedly and shook her head.
Simone was black. She had a light complexion and long black hair. She was as tall as Tori, though a little smaller. She was a beautiful woman with brown eyes and a well-endowed body. Her face was thin but looked as though it had been well carved; it was structured so beautifully. “Just cool it, Girl,” Simone said. “You’re gonna get yourself too worked up. And neither of us wants that to happen.”
“I’m trying, but it’s so damn hard. That woman makes me so angry.”
“Going over there and beating the mess out of her won’t do you any good.”
“It’d sure make me feel good. Damn, I thought this was gonna be a good day when I beat back that headache. Then I get that call from Susy. I could break Ava’s neck.”
“What has she got against Susy?”
“She just doesn’t want Susy around. She wants her own fat slob of a kid to have everything. I just can’t understand why my daddy lets her treat his own child like that. She’s his flesh and blood. She’s his dead wife’s child.”
“You know how men are when it comes to young women. He’s blinded by her beauty.”
“Well he’d better get some sight real soon, because I’m getting sick and tired of this. I’m not gonna let this lady keep mistreating my sister.”
“Susy is so sweet. She doesn’t deserve Ava’s treatment.”
“So tell me about it. That damn witch, I want to . . .”
Tori clenched her fists and grit her teeth. She couldn’t say anything; she was so angry.
“What exactly are you gonna do?” asked Simone.
Tori stopped her pacing. She looked Simone straight in the eyes.
“I
’m gonna have a talk with Ava. That is, if I don’t break her head first.”
Simone didn’t like those words at all.
“Don’t go over there, at least not right now. Give yourself time to cool off first.”
“It’ll be hard, but I’ll control myself . . . I think.”
“Tori? Be careful now.” She uncrossed her legs and leaned forward on the couch. “You two don’t like each other. You could end up throwing punches.”
“For her sake, she’d better hope that doesn’t happen.”
“Now it’s that kind of attitude which scares me.”
“My attitude is justified. You didn’t hear Susy’s crying voice over the phone. I can’t take this, Simone. I just can’t.”
Suddenly, Tori hurried for the stairway.
“Where are you going?” asked Simone.
“I’m going over to my dad’s. That lady’s not gonna keep getting away with treating Susy like dirt.”
Tori shot up the stairs. She dashed into her bedroom and swiped her jacket off the chair in front of her makeup table. She then whisked back down the stairs.
She noticed yet more worry etched in Simone’s face.
“You want me to go?” Simone asked. “Maybe I can help keep things under control.”
“This is between me, that bitch, and my father. I’ll handle it.”
“Please control yourself, Tori. I don’t want to have to bail you out of jail.”
“Somebody’s got to fight Ava Myles-Edwards. If that wimp of a father of mine won’t do it, then I will.”
Tori blitzed to the door. “I’m out of here.”
She opened the door and was out in a flash, leaving behind a highly bothered best friend.
Ava had a small meeting room next to her office. In the room there was a medium-sized round table with four chairs. In the corner, there was another table which housed a laptop computer, and another chair.
Ava sat alone at the round table. The door was closed. She read a newspaper article that had been written about her nearly three months ago. She was good friends with a reporter from the Del Toray Press. She had convinced him to do a story on her.
Ava read the story with a slight grin on her face. The story was about how Princess Ava helped give convicts a second chance. She had become a member of a special Prison Early Release Plan. In that plan, convicts would be released on probation to her care. She would essentially vouch for them. Ava was a real mover and shaker, and over the past three years since she had become a Minister, she had made good connections throughout the city. As a result, she was able to get convicts in her care – jobs. The jobs may not have been the best, and some of them weren’t even full-time, but it was employment. Helping prisoners in that manner helped give Ava good public relations publicity. It had attracted members to her small church.
“Everybody deserves a second chance,” Ava had said in the article.
However, Ava’s concern for the prison population had had another side to it. Ava’s grin turned from pleasant to sly. The truth of the matter was that Ava needed people to help run her church. She needed people whom she could pay a minimal amount, if anything at all. She didn’t have much money to spend. She also needed people whom she could control. She chose her convicts carefully. She picked men whom she knew would be terrified of the idea of returning to prison. Those were the men who would do her dirty work for her in the church and keep it a secret. Besides, Ava knew that even if the men tried to squeal on her, who would take the word of crooks over a sweet Minister like her?
Ava had the complete advantage over the men, and she would not hesitate to pull the plug and have them sent back to prison if they didn’t do what she wanted. No matter how much other people would speak up for the men, it was her word that carried the final bit of weight. She had taken responsibility for those men. If she said things weren’t working out, then the mens’ probations would be revoked. Ava had no problems doing such a thing, and she would easily lie on the men it if suited her purposes. If the convicts didn’t fulfill their church obligations, then they were history.
Ava finished the article. She relaxed back in her chair and locked her hands behind her head. She planned to have the residents of this city eating out of her hands. She wanted to make the city’s name just as much of a household word as L.A. A small-time Minister today, a big-time Televangelist tomorrow. And then Mayor, perhaps. Governor. Senator. Who knew? She had such ambitions, and she was determined to make all her dreams come true.
It took money to move up, though. The money from her Ministry came in too slowly. She needed to move much faster. She wanted to be a millionaire by no later than age thirty-four, and she had added four years to her previous goal. She would add no more. If she could come into some money, then that would be the springboard she would need to take her Ministry to the next level. She could build a bigger church. With a bigger church, she could gain greater exposure. With greater exposure, she could use her public relations genius to soar.
Ava had obstacles, but overall, she was very confident that she would eventually reach her desires. Speed, that was the biggest obstacle. She had to find a way to hasten things. She was not a patient person. If only she could get more money.
Ava took a deep breath. As soon as she finished letting the hot air out, her eyes turned beady and scary. Susy, that little wench, she thought angrily, and the inheritance money her mother had left behind. Susy’s mother Carol had had some lottery success before she had died. She hadn’t been able to enjoy the money, but she had left it to Henry and their two daughters. Henry, being the winner that he was, had blown nearly all of his share gambling. Tori had taken her share for her own personal endeavors. Most of the other money she had allowed her ex-boyfriend to waste on failed investments. Susy’s share, however, it was still there. It was worth two hundred thousand dollars with interest by now. By the time Susy received the money at age eighteen, it would be worth even more. As far as Ava was concerned, the two hundred grand would be more than enough.
If only Ava could get her hands on that money. The idea made her nearly froth at the mouth. Oh how Ava hated that child. She was always in the way. She and Henry and Jimmy could have a nice little family if Susy weren’t in the way, at least until she dumped Henry. She probably wouldn’t have to deal with seeing that witch Tori, either, if Susy weren’t around – because Tori probably would hardly ever come to the house. But the biggest obstacle of all that Susy presented was being in the way of that money. That money was the key to her dreams. What right did that little stinker have to block it? There was no way the money could be touched. The will was airtight. So at age eighteen, Susy would probably have nearly a half million dollars waiting for her.
It wasn’t fair, Ava scoffed in her head. Everything came so easily to that little bitch. She was born beautiful, unlike Ava, who was a frump until her teenage years. Ava had had to work hard with makeup, and she had even convinced her father – who denied her nothing – to pay for a little plastic surgery on her nose. He had used car accident insurance money to pay for it. As for Trust Funds, there had been none waiting for Ava when she’d turned eighteen. Susy would be able to use that money to put herself through college, maybe even graduate or professional school. Ava hadn’t been able to go to college. That little brat Susy would probably go off to college one day and then come back with her degree, and look down her nose at Ava.
“I’ll kill her if she tries that,” Ava mumbled with disdain.
Why did she have to be so lucky? Why did things have to come to her so easily? Everybody loved little Susy. She had what seemed to be all the friends in the world, unlike Jimmy, whom everybody seemed to dislike with a passion. Susy was a straight "A" student. Jimmy was lucky to pull down "C’s." Susy was voted class president for the fifth grade at Marshall Elementary school. Ava had heard that in a private student vote, Jimmy had been voted class idiot. Susy seemed to be headed for big things. Jimmy was on the path of being a sure loser, though Ava had every intenti
on of trying to stop it.
But it just didn’t seem right to Ava that one child should have so much good fortune. Susy Edwards was just too lucky. Nobody should be able to kill failure so easily. Then, suddenly, for some reason, the word “Kill” this time stuck in Ava’s mind. Her eyes lit up. She felt them turn sinister. They became deadly. If fire could have burned in a human being’s eyes, then Ava’s eyes would have sizzled at that moment.
The door to the room came open, and Joe entered carrying a folder full of papers. He immediately stopped, though, at seeing the frightening scowl on Ava’s face. He stared at her. Ava stared back, knowing he was there, but not really caring – she was so entrenched in thought.
“What’s wrong?” he asked with concern.
Ava said nothing. She just dropped her hands to her side, and then looked at him indifferently.
“ . . . Ohh . . . It’s nothing.”
“Somebody made you mad? Bim maybe?”
“It’s nothing. Forget it.”
Ava sighed wearily and ran her hands through her hair. She knew Joe was bothered by what he had seen, but he had no choice but to let it go. If Ava didn’t want to explain something, nobody could make her. Joe stepped to the table and sat down beside her.
“I’ve got the papers showing our finances over the past six months.” He motioned to the folder which he dropped in front of her. “You wanted them for the meeting, right?”
“Sure did.” Ava released her temples. “Where’s everybody at?”
“They’ll be here. The meeting’s not for another ten minutes.”
“It doesn’t hurt to be early. I deal with such losers. They have no ambition.”
Joe smiled. “Ava, the rising superstar. She’s just so impatient on her way to the top.”
“Damn right. And you better believe – I’ll get to the top. Everybody’ll know my name. I’ll take this city by storm. My name and face will be all over the papers and TV’s across the country.”
“Why of course. You’re gonna be the next Joel Osteen.”
“To hell with him. He’s a wimp. He really does believe in a God. I believe in money. That’s the God gets you somewhere.”
Princess Reigns Page 3